1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording and playback television broadcast such as a video cassette recorder (VCR).
2. Description of the Background Art
When a television broadcast is once recorded by a VCR and the user subsequently watches the recorded broadcast content at a convenient time, commercials (CM) broadcast amid the recorded program are, inherently, not necessary for the user.
Therefore, the user wishes to skip the commercials. For this purpose, conventionally, the user sets the VCR to cue mode when a commercial starts during playback, and sets the VCR again to standard playback mode when the commercial ends. Hence, the user must do two operations.
However, as the user first confirms the end of the commercial and then sets the VCR to standard playback mode, while the user is confirming, tape is moving fast in relatively the cue mode; hence the content of the program immediately after the end of the commercial may be missed. In order to adjust excessive feeding of the tape, the user may set the VCR a review mode, searching for the start of the program after the commercial. However, it is difficult to stop the tape exactly at the end of the commercial by cueing or reviewing.
A VCR having a commercial skipping function has been known which utilizes the fact that the period of a commercial is, in principle, thirty seconds, and therefore, in one operation, cues the tape corresponding to thirty seconds and thereafter automatically returns to the playback state automatically. However, to cope with common commercials broadcast for about two minutes, such an operation must be repeated four times. Further, such a VCR cannot cope with an exceptionally short commercial of which length is ten seconds, fifteen seconds or the like.
Further, in Japan, a conventional video tape recorder (VTR) utilizes the fact that standard sound of foreign movies is broadcast a bilingual mode while commercials are broadcast in stereo mode. Such a VTR stops recording when a pilot signal of a bilingual broadcast is not detected, so as to prevent a commercial from being recorded. Further, a VTR has been known which marks a commercial period on the tape when the pilot signal of bilingual broadcast is not detected while recording, and in which the commercial period is cued based on the mark during playback. However, these methods utilizing sound multiplexed signal can only cope with limited programs.